Toshiba was found guilty of fixing prices of Thin Film Transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD). A Northern California jury on Tuesday has fined the Japanese company a massive $87 million.
After two days of deliberations, the 10-member jury determined Toshiba was involved in the conspiracy with other Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese vendors to keep LCD prices artificially high between 1999 and 2006 and found that the company is liable to manufacturers for $17 million and to consumers for $70 million. Under the US antitrust law, overcharge damages can increase three times the jury's ruling, or $261 million.
"There was strong evidence that Toshiba participated in the price-fixing conspiracy through communications with other TFT-LCD manufacturers, and that it received future pricing information from its competitors, shared its own future information, and was aware of its wrongdoing," stated Bruce L. Simon, co-lead counsel for plaintiffs. "We are grateful for the jury's service. The jury rejected Toshiba's claim that it had done nothing wrong, and this is one of the few antitrust class actions ever tried to a successful verdict."
However, the Japanese electronics giant has denied its involvement in any illegal activity and said it believes that it doesn't have to pay anything toward the jury's fine as other defendants in the class-action lawsuit have already paid settlements the amount of which exceeds the fine against Toshiba.
"Given credits for settlements by other defendants, Toshiba expects that it will not have to pay any damages as a result of this verdict, even after trebling under U.S. antitrust laws," Toshiba said in a statement.
"Toshiba plans to pursue all available legal avenues to correct that finding," spokesman Julius Christensen said in an email statement. Toshiba has "consistently maintained that there was no illegal activity on its part in the LCD business in the United States," added Christensen.
Consumers filed a civil lawsuit against Toshiba and other involved companies. While in December seven leading LCD manufacturers, including Samsung and Sharp paid $553 million to settle lawsuits, three such makers, including Toshiba, fought against the allegation in a San Francisco federal court.
